DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9188#0023
The Lamps of Greek Art
J 5
II
The second lamp of Greek art is Simplicity. The artist
sees quite clearly what he desires to produce, and sets about
producing it without hesitation, without self-consciousness,
with no beating about the bush. Of course the more primitive
and less conventional a society is, the easier it is for artists to
be simple. In a complicated society simplicity and directness
are apt to be confused with what is commonplace or even with
the foolish. The simplicity of Wordsworth and of Tennyson
does sometimes cross the line. The Greeks had the great
advantage of coming before other cultivated peoples, so that
there was no commonplace to avoid. They could be simple,
as the wild rose and the primrose are simple. What could be
more simple than the Iliad ? The same simplicity marks
Greek sculpture. It requires no great exercise of the intellect
to understand it. It presents every figure in a clear and
unsophisticated way.
As there is no more sure sign of a fine nature than the
absence of self-consciousness, so there is no more sure sign of
greatness in art than simplicity. The Greeks did not strive
to be original, to make people stare, to do the unusual. One
of the most usual subjects in Greek relief is a battle between
male warriors and Amazons. Such battles adorn many temples.
And in every case they are distinctive in style. One could not
mistake a group from the temple at Phigaleia for a group from
the Mausoleum. And there is no sameness: almost every
group has some point or touch of its own, which makes it
a variety on the usual theme. One Amazon is falling from her
horse, one is asking for quarter, one is following up a retreating
foe. But no group is insistent that the passer-by should look
at it. The relief was the decoration of a temple ; and if its
originality drew men's attention from the temple itself, or
from the Deity seated enthroned within, it might justly be
B 2
J 5
II
The second lamp of Greek art is Simplicity. The artist
sees quite clearly what he desires to produce, and sets about
producing it without hesitation, without self-consciousness,
with no beating about the bush. Of course the more primitive
and less conventional a society is, the easier it is for artists to
be simple. In a complicated society simplicity and directness
are apt to be confused with what is commonplace or even with
the foolish. The simplicity of Wordsworth and of Tennyson
does sometimes cross the line. The Greeks had the great
advantage of coming before other cultivated peoples, so that
there was no commonplace to avoid. They could be simple,
as the wild rose and the primrose are simple. What could be
more simple than the Iliad ? The same simplicity marks
Greek sculpture. It requires no great exercise of the intellect
to understand it. It presents every figure in a clear and
unsophisticated way.
As there is no more sure sign of a fine nature than the
absence of self-consciousness, so there is no more sure sign of
greatness in art than simplicity. The Greeks did not strive
to be original, to make people stare, to do the unusual. One
of the most usual subjects in Greek relief is a battle between
male warriors and Amazons. Such battles adorn many temples.
And in every case they are distinctive in style. One could not
mistake a group from the temple at Phigaleia for a group from
the Mausoleum. And there is no sameness: almost every
group has some point or touch of its own, which makes it
a variety on the usual theme. One Amazon is falling from her
horse, one is asking for quarter, one is following up a retreating
foe. But no group is insistent that the passer-by should look
at it. The relief was the decoration of a temple ; and if its
originality drew men's attention from the temple itself, or
from the Deity seated enthroned within, it might justly be
B 2